MANILA, Philippines (Updated 2:23 p.m.) — Defense official and former Bureau of Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon has been transferred to a new government post.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Friday that President Rodrigo Duterte has picked Faeldon to take over the Bureau of Corrections post.
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The post was vacated by Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa, who filed his certificate of candidacy for senator earlier today at the Commission on Elections.
Dela Rosa held the BuCor chief post for six months. During his stint as head of the said agency, the former police chief cited curbing the illegal drug trade inside the national penitentiary as one of the problems he is facing.
Faeldon was the former chief of Customs but he has since stepped down from the post over the P6.4 billion shabu shipment case.
Faeldon tendered his resignation thrice before Duterte accepted it
Duterte: Gov't would need Faeldon
Duterte re-appointed Faeldon as deputy administrator of the Office of the Civil Defense under the Department of National Defense in December.
This was four months since he quit as Customs chief.
The president, upon accepting his resignation, said: "From the tone of his resignation, he's very disappointed but I really believe he is an honest man."
READ: Duterte to Faeldon: Rest, get married, then we'll talk
Duterte also hinted that the "government would need Faeldon."
Drug raps
PDEA filed a violation of the law against the importation of illegal drugs complaint against Faeldon and several other Customs officials over the multi-billion peso shabu case. However, the National Prosecution Service dismissed the raps against Faeldon.
State prosecutors said the complainants failed "to state with clarity the acts or omission supposedly committed by the above-named BOC respondents that would constitute violation of the offense charged."
While Faeldon may have gotten off criminal prosecution, he is still facing investigation at the Office of the Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman’s fact-finding panel recommended cases against the former Customs chief and other officials of the agency.
Last May, the panel said Faeldon should face complaints of graft, grave misconduct and usurpation of official functions, among others.
Faeldon was granted amnesty
Faeldon was among the mutineers who availed of amnesty from the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III.
Duterte has declared as “void from the beginning” the amnesty, also under Aquino’s administration, granted to Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV. The president claimed that Trillanes’ had not applied for amnesty since his records are missing and he did not admit guilt.
The Department of Justice told a Makati court—which was hearing the factual issues on Duterte’s Proclamation 572—that Trillanes also failed to admit guilt as the form he mentioned only indicated an admission to an “incident” and not a crime.
The same form was filled out by Faeldon.
In a chance interview earlier on September, Faeldon told reports that he is willing to go back to jail.
“I can go back to jail tomorrow. The process is void, bakit hindi natin sundin yun?” Faeldon had earlier said.